[monochrom] The tyranny of nodes: Towards a critique of social network theories

[das ende der nahrungskette]

Networks have become a powerful metaphor to 
explain the social realities of our times. 
Everywhere we look there are attempts to explain 
all kinds of social formations in terms of 
networks: citizen networks, corporate networks, 
gamer networks, terrorist networks, learning 
networks… and so on. Information and 
communication technologies—in particcular the 
internet—and the structures they enable have 
greatly influuenced how we imagine the social. 
It's similar to what happened in cognitive 
science when the computer was taken as the 
favored metaphor for explaining how the brain 
works, except that now we are attempting to explain how the social works.

But is there something anti-social about 
imagining and organizing our social realities in terms of networks?

<http://blog.ulisesmejias.com/2006/10/09/the-tyranny-of-nodes-towards-a-critique-of-social-network-theories/#more-169>Link 
(via <http://twitter.com/cuuixsilver/status/1113496505>cuuixsilver)

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Posted By johannes to 
<http://www.monochrom.at/english/2009/01/tyranny-of-nodes-towards-critique-of.htm>monochrom 
at 1/12/2009 06:12:00 PM